Inside Lacrosse February Issue: More on Midfield Lines in Women's Lacrosse

Are midfield lines the future of women’s lacrosse? The Inside Lacrosse February issue explores this very issue, looking at how some of the nation’s top programs have taken a slightly different approach and moved away from the more traditional practice of keeping starters in for the majority of the game.

Inside Lacrosse was able to talk with more Division I coaches after the issue went to press, making it possible to further examine this trend as well as gain more knowledge about why this is happening, if it will continue and a little insight into various midfield substitution patterns.

There are a handful of teams at the Division I level that have embraced the use of midfield lines, perhaps the most successful of them being Georgetown. Coach Ricky Fried has long been a proponent of running lines and has said the key to making it work, is getting the players to buy into a system that in the long run will benefit the team rather than the individual.

Syracuse is another team that is making the move toward the use of midfield lines and Northwestern, widely known for it’s frantic pace and substitutions, has also been at the center of this movement.

Upon looking at this core group of teams utilizing midfield lines, one thing becomes strikingly clear — the influence of men’s sports on the women’s game. Both Fried and Gait are two of the most prominent male coaches in NCAA women's lacrosse and Kelly Amonte Hiller's style is partially influenced from having grown up with brothers who played hockey. Many other teams, while not led by male coaches, have men on their staffs.

There are coaches outside of this group who have at one point used or currently use midfield lines. Others have adapted to the run-and-gun style of today's game by using faster midfield substitution patterns and some still stick to a more traditional approach of having a starting group that stays on the field for the majority of the game, subbing to give them a few breaks when they need a breather.

Virginia and Notre Dame fall in the more traditional group that keeps their starters on the field for as much of the game as possible. In 2010, this strategy made sense for both of these programs, as each boasted at least one midfielder who was a force on both ends of the field that was too valuable to take off. For Virginia is was Kaitlin Duff and Tewaaraton finalist Brittany Kalkstein and for Notre Dame, it was Shaylyn Blaney.

Vanderbilt, which has arguably the best two-way middie in the college game in Ally Carey returning this season, lies somewhere between the two extremes.

"I think for some programs, the idea of midfield lines works really well," says Vanderbilt coach Cathy Swezey. "For us, it's not the direction we want to go right now. I like all my players to have chemistry and the ability to have that chemistry with a line may not be as good and that's always been my catch."

That being said, Swezey does use a lot of midfield substitutions while trying to keep Carey on the field as much as possible.

Duke is another team that hasn't moved all the way to the use of actual lines, but substitutes a lot of players through the midfield to get the best matchups possible.

"We use a substitution pattern that affords us a lot of flexibility," says coach Kerstin Kimmel. "On the team, we have some midfielders that are better at defense than others. In a particular game, there are matchups that work better, someone could get hot and you want to keep them in. Before each game we consider our strategy, think about matchups and exchange middies in and out based on that. We also adjust based on how the game is going.

"Ideally, I want to have a deep core of midfielders I can move around and be flexible. That way of approaching the midfield gives us flexibility and unpredictability."

James Madison, which won the Colonial Athletic Conference last season and was an NCAA Tournament quarterfinalist, is another team that uses midfield lines. The system implemented by coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe over the past couple of years, allows for flexibility depending on personnel and each year the system is tweaked to adapt to the players on that team.

Last year, Klaes-Bawcombe wanted star midfielder Kim Griffin on the field as much as possible and ran her independent of the lines, allowing her to stay on the field and then come off when she needed a breather. This season, she’s hoping to have six middies solid enough to use a more normal subbing system.

It's only been the last couple of years that I've been able to run midfield lines," Klaes-Bawcombe says. "Now, we're in a position because of recruiting to have more players who are ready to compete. We feel that because we are deeper, we want to have the ability to motivate athletes by providing playing time and running multiple midfielders gives a great opportunity to do so."

While midfield lines haven't yet become an overly common occurrence in the women's game, it's starting to trend upward and the game's continued growth combined with the system's dependence on depth will certainly contribute to the increased use of midfield lines.

“Over time it will become more common because there are more players and more talent,” says Klaes-Bawcombe. “I also feel like there are a lot of traditionalists in our game and if they’re not comfortable with it, they’re not going to do it. It’s being open to changing strategy and philosophy within the game and keeping yourself modern.”